


I wanna fly like a cannonball

by leiascully



Series: New York AU [12]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-25
Updated: 2010-05-25
Packaged: 2017-10-09 19:26:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/90725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Kara, we need to talk."</p>
            </blockquote>





	I wanna fly like a cannonball

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: NY AU, after "I know when a good thing is gone"  
> A/N: For **[eugis](http://eugis.livejournal.com)** ♥ The title is from the Bob Dylan song "Baby, I'm In The Mood For You".  
> Disclaimer: _Battlestar Galactica_ and all related characters belong to Ronald Moore, NBC Universal, Sci-Fi Channel, and Sky One. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

"Are we ever going to talk about this?" Lee asks, falling back panting into the sheets.

"Got nothing to talk about," Kara says. She pats him with one sweaty hand. "Just keep doing that and I swear to God we'll never talk again."

"Kara, we need to talk," Lee says. "I mean, that whole story that Sam told us. What if that's true? What if that means something?"

"I didn't take you for a man who believed in fairy tales," Kara says, burrowing into the pillows and dragging the sheet over her naked body.

"It feels real," Lee insists. "It feels like he was right."

"So what if he was?" Kara says. "Look, I may believe in the possibility of reincarnation, saints forgive me, but I don't believe I was married to a robot. I know what flesh and blood feels like."

"Maybe the robot part went away?" Lee says, ignoring the part about feeling Sam. "I mean, I didn't take a lot of religious studies in college, but in reincarnation, the soul just transfers bodies, right? So if he was a machine with a soul and he got reborn, the new body isn't a robot."

Kara stares at him like he's grown a new head. "Right. Let's take a minute to think through the mechanics of robotic reincarnation. Or, I have an idea, we could move on with our lives because it doesn't matter a damn either way."

"Just trying to help," Lee grumbles.

"Don't know why you took religious studies anyway," Kara says into the pillow. "You're like the least hippy-dippy person I know."

"I was curious," Lee says defensively. "My whole family's confirmed atheists."

"So you wanted to know how the other half lives?" She snorts. "Are you gonna make a documentary about me? Crazy artists - all the sexy rumors are true?"

"You want to stop changing the subject?"

"No," she says.

"So we're just going to go on pretending nothing happened?" Lee asks. "Just like that? Back to normal?"

She tumbles out of the bed. "Sam was the one goddamn thing in this life I couldn't fuck up, okay?" she shouts. "Sam was the one pig-headed loyal dumbass who would stay with me until the bitter end. And now he's gone, and the papers on the table say it's forever. So what's that say about this, huh? What's that say about us? And it doesn't matter if you love me, it doesn't matter if I love you, it doesn't matter if I loved Sam. I fuck up everything. You might as well get out now before you run into my special destiny to beat the hell out of everything good."

"I'm not going anywhere," Lee says, pulling her back on top of him.

"Easy enough to say," Kara snaps. She lets her elbows dig into his ribs. "Harder to do, or so every goddamn person in my life has proved."

"I'm doing it right now," Lee says, exasperated. "Look at me, not leaving. Do you see how I'm completely failing at walking out the door?"

"Right now," Kara says.

"Kara," Lee says. "Look at me. You can't predicate this relationship on the idea that I'm going to leave you."

"Not everything works out just because you _want_ it to!" Kara snaps. "Lee Adama, golden boy, got the girl, got the job, got everything he ever wanted."

"Baby," Lee says, thinking back on his childhood, the bases that all looked the same, the kids that all looked different, "you have no idea."

"Well, let's not sit around swapping sob stories," Kara says. She clambers out of the bed, naked and careless in front of the open window. "I mean, I've got things to do, divorce papers to sign, your brother to paint, you to fuck as long as you can keep your mouth shut. Things to eat. Places to drink. Jesus, I don't think I've been to Joe's in a month. Bastard'll be pining for me." She drags on some underwear, a bra, and a t-shirt that hardly covers anything.

"You're painting Zak?" Images of his own experience being painted by Kara flash through Lee's mind: namely, nudity, or near it. He resists the urge to clench his fists. By God, he's faced down a husband this week; he's sure as hell not going to lose his girl to his little brother.

"Relax," Kara drawls, rummaging through her heaps of laundry. "I'll keep him in a loin cloth. But he's my Hades, and he's going to make us a lot of money."

Lee swallows back outrage. "When did you arrange this?"

"I'm not allowed to talk to your brother?" Kara asks, with that dangerous edge to her voice.

"Just wondering," Lee backtracks.

"Jealous?" Kara purrs, climbing into her painting overalls. He's not sure how she makes them look sexy. Maybe it's the skin that shows from rib to hip all down her side. Maybe it's the thought of how focused she gets on painting or sculpting, so that he has to sneak up behind her and breathe in her ear before she'll come to bed.

"Of course not," Lee lies. He doesn't really want all of that concentration centered on Zak. On the other hand, Zak had his chance and either passed or failed - either way, didn't make the grade - and Lee's pretty smug about that.

Kara stretches, distracting him again. "Think I'm gonna run off with your little brother? He does bring home more bacon than you do."

Lee sputters and Kara laughs at him, her wicked uncensored cackle. It's been weeks since he's heard her laugh. Something that was strung taut inside him eases.

"I told you I was gonna paint Zak months ago, jackass," Kara informs him. "The first time I painted you, actually, although I guess your dick was doing the thinking that day."

"I was naked," Lee protests. "You were hot."

"Yeah, too bad you don't remember that I told you that I was gonna make Zak wear a giant black robe." Kara shakes her head. "Jesus. I'm only making bank off _your body_, Leland. I just want Zak for his pretty face."

"I remember everything else," Lee says, rolling out of bed and stepping close to her. It's a dangerous move, but it might work. He puts his hands on her waist. "You were wearing those overalls. You didn't have shoes on. You had paint in your hair."

"Good guess." She rolls her eyes. "Maybe I wanted to think your dick was doing the thinking. God, Lee, you don't take a compliment away from somebody. No wonder you never got laid before I took pity on you."

"You kissed me on the cheek when I walked in your door," he says, pulling her even closer.

"Put you off balance, didn't it?" She grins to herself. "Not like you didn't need taking down a peg or two."

"You told me you had to pay rent," he accuses her.

"Even basketball stars don't have enough money to buy two apartments at once and pay 'em off completely," she says. "He's not even, like, a _name_. I still pay rent. And I have to, you know, eat and buy supplies and all that shit. I got bills like anybody else. Besides, it was none of your goddamn business."

"Right. You were telling me to take off all my clothes and I was just supposed to take you at your word."

"And you share all your financial information with every woman whose clothes you take off," she snarks. "Wait, you probably do. 'I'm sorry, honey, can you just review this form before we start having consensual relations?'" She mimes filling out paperwork. "'Oh, and if you want oral, you better check the box and make over $50,000 a year. Do you have any references?'"

"I am not that bad," Lee says. "I didn't ask you a damn thing."

"You never had a chance, Apollo," Kara smirks. "I owned you before you opened your mouth, and every single person in this city knows it. Joe knew it. He said something about my lair."

"Joe should have told me," Lee teases.

"You were caught," Kara says in a tone of wicked satisfaction. "Nothing you could have done."

Lee catches her hands and holds them together over her head, walking her back against the wall. "And now you're caught."

"I could leave any time I wanted," Kara says. "Just walk out. Tomorrow morning you'll wake up and I won't even be here."

Lee shakes his head. "Not this time. This time, it's us. It's us, Kara, it's you and me." He stares deep into her brown eyes. "You're caught and I'm caught and I'm _glad_ to be here. I _want_ to be here. You don't have to cuff me to the bed to make sure I don't leave."

"That was just fun," she says, pressing her body against him. "So we're okay?" She suddenly won't look at him, like she's really afraid he'll walk out that door. His heart thumps.

"We're stellar," he says. His voice is huskier than he'd like, but hell, Kara would know where to put the knife if she wanted to hurt him. He's got to get used to being vulnerable. "Better than stellar. Nothing in the world can come between us now. Not this world, not any world. Sign your papers, don't sign your papers, I don't give a damn anymore. You're stuck with me, Kara Thrace. Lee Adama doesn't do takebacks."

"Even Saint Jude gave up on Kara Thrace," she says to herself.

"I'm no saint," Lee says firmly. "Wait. You're Catholic?"

"Raised that way," Kara says. "You got a problem? Also, are you just getting that?"

Lee grins. "You still have a uniform?"

"Just because I'm Catholic doesn't mean I went to Catholic school, you jackass," Kara says witheringly.

"Damn," Lee says.

"Hah, can you even imagine me in that skirt and knee socks," Kara cackles. "Hair in pigtails. White buttondown." She raises an eyebrow. "Your dick's doing the thinking again, isn't it?"

"Uhhh," he says. "Yeah, kind of."

"Just the way I like you," she says, and pushes him away with her hips, shoving at him until he trips and falls onto the bed.

"I was looking for you for a long time, Kara," Lee says, heaving himself half-up onto his elbows. "All my life maybe. I told you I'm no saint. I've broken hearts before. Sometimes on purpose. I just couldn't settle. I couldn't find what I was looking for. I think I was waiting for you. That's why I care about the story. It tells me I was right to wait."

"If you didn't already know that you wanted me," Kara begins, but Lee grabs her and pulls her down.

"I knew," he says. "I knew the minute I saw you and you knew it too, and Zak knew it, and Joe knew it, and hell, we probably caused an earthquake somewhere, because the whole world knew it. You're my special destiny."

"Shut up, Adama," she says, but before she kisses him, he sees the glint in her eyes. Well, he's made Kara Thrace cry: she'll either throw him out tomorrow or make him swear a blood oath not to tell a soul.

"When's Zak gonna be here?" he asks, undoing the clasp of her shoulder straps, peeling off her clothes until he can feel her skin under his hands again, and God, it feels like coming home, just like every time since the first time.

"Zak can wait," Kara says. "Hades is used to dealing with this. Now make me see stars, Apollo."


End file.
